The Supreme Court has taken steps to lay down a code for media reporting. This attempt at prior restraint on the media is a dangerous move with precedent from authoritarian polities. In a context where the judiciary has been lax in defending the media from attacks which seek to curb its freedom, such unilateral moves will not remedy bad reporting but rather make conditions worse for the media to play...

-The Indian Express The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked Army authorities to decide whether its personnel accused of fake encounter killings in Jammu and Kashmir and Assam should be tried by court-martial proceedings or by regular criminal courts. A Bench of Justices B S Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said if Army authorities were not keen on court-martial proceedings, then the CBI could seek sanction from the Centre for prosecution of Army officers. Army...

-The Hindu The acquittal of 23 people convicted by a lower court in the gruesome Bathani Tola massacre case is a shocking indictment of the country's criminal justice system. The mass murder of a group of 21 Dalits and Muslims, most of them women and children, by the notorious caste militia, the Ranvir Sena, took place in Bihar's Bhojpur district in 1996 in broad daylight. The basic facts about the ghastly...

-PTI A local court today acquitted 40 accused, including senior BJP leaders, in the first ever communal riots case in the state, which had occurred in the twin towns of Curchorem-Sanvordem in 2006. The sessions court at Margao acquitted 40 accused, including BJP general secretary Satish Dhond and senior leader Sharmad Raiturcar. The accused had been charged with unlawful assembly, mischief and criminal trespass. Riots had erupted after a mob demolished a madrassa...

-Express News Service Just over a decade after two dozen Muslims were massacred in Ode during the 2002 riots in Gujarat, a specially appointed court on Monday convicted 23 people from the Patel community while acquitting 23 for want of evidence. One of the accused died during the trial. Of the 23 convicted, 19 have been found guilty of murder and conspiracy and the rest of attempt to murder along with allied...